


Skye Johnson: On Daisy’s name change from the perspective of a trans fan.

by DustySoul



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Fandom - Fandom
Genre: Meta, Name Changes, Names, Trans, trans themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 19:43:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4973641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustySoul/pseuds/DustySoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a meta, what it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skye Johnson: On Daisy’s name change from the perspective of a trans fan.

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posted from tumblr  
> http://dusty-soul.tumblr.com/post/130914736301/skye-johnson-on-daisys-name-change-from-the

“ _Only I get to call her that!” - Cal to Coulson (Season two S.O.S)_

A name change, a  _first name_  change, is a right of passage in the trans community. Not all trans people go through it, that’s true. Just like not all people go to their highschool graduation or to prom, have a bar mitzvah or a sweet 16. But it’s just as important and affirming as any other coming of age event. Perhaps, even more so. It is one of the most concrete ways to affirm an identity. In someways it seems almost sacred.

So, why am I so stuck when it comes to calling  _Skye_  Daisy?

Well… because I don’t know who Daisy is. Just like her father never new who Skye was. And because it contradicts the standard (and, like I said, almost sacred) name change narrative that I’m used to and have been through myself.

Skye is a name the character chose and made for herself. She made it from nothing but her own identity, not suggestions for what her parents might have named her if she was a boy, and not a gender bent version of her birth name. Skye is all her own. Completely. Totally. Utterly. It is - or was - a summary of her entire identity in a word not given power just because it’s hers but because it’s a word she chose and made  _herself_.

Back in season one I was  ** _elated_**  to see a character with this kind of relationship to their name. A chosen name is different from one given by parents, fundamentally so. Especially, I think, one someone came up with on there own. And even though Skye wasn’t trans and doesn’t have that same relationship to gender, I knew she felt the same way about her name as I do my own - even if it’s for different reasons.

I know who Skye is. I spent two seasons getting to know and love her as she explores who she is, even through a brutal and traumatic transformation.

And now I’m left wondering  _who is Daisy?_

I’m used to names signifying a major change in a person, or rather, a desperately needed perspective change on the observer’s behalf. So  _who is Daisy?_ I’m so, so ready to get to know her. But after watching the first two episodes of season three all I can say is  _Daisy is Skye._ No change. Except the name.

Okay, now she has super powers, but her name change is not to honor that fact. (More on that in a moment.) Ever since the obelisk came into play we knew Skye was going to get super powers. She’s the main character! It’s her origin story! Of course she’s going to get _super powers_. It doesn’t fundamentally change who she is. The comparisons to gender identity and transitioning, in this regard, are confusing and nonsensical. But looking at other super hero origin stories in the MCU it is absolutely safe to safe that super powers don’t change a person. I mean, that’s basically Steve Roger’s whole Captain America arc!

So, since season three has done nothing to show me who Daisy is, I have to think back to the past seasons. Specifically to where Skye pulls a gun on her father, threatens to kill him him, and then has a cry on Coulson’s chest about how she couldn’t kill her father even though she wanted to.

I don’t think there is a more forceful way to reject a name. Maybe if she’d shot him, but he’s needed for Plot! so.

All that leaves is Cal. And his interactions make it clear to me. Daisy is the girl who got to grow up with her father. She got picked up from school. She made a volcano for the science fair. She celebrated every birthday on July 2nd. She probably dressed up as a different princess every year for halloween. Her dad told her bed time stories. In short, Daisy is the little girl Cal desperately,  _desperately_ , wanted Skye to be.

He doesn’t really shows signs of understanding who Skye is. He knows she’s been hurt and was “taken”. But beyond that he knows almost nothing about her - her likes, her dislikes, why she does what she does, what she believes in, what her favorite book is. All he knows about Skye, is that she isn’t Daisy. She isn’t who he wants her to be though he tries so hard to pretend otherwise. That is, up until the season two finally when pulls a 180 on Coulson and yells at him,“Only I get to call her that!”.

And, in the end, and given the chance to be a real father, instead of being mind whipped I think Cal would have accepted it. He would have accepted that he’s never going to help build that volcano and never going to braid his daughter’s hair or read her to sleep. He would have accepted that Skye is Skye. He would have tried to give her a bouquet of the brightest blues and the fluffiest clouds.

So, since the show provides no new insights in season three, no new context, I’m left thinking that Skye changing her name represents her taking on Cal’s delusions and attempts to relive a past that never could have been. Which I can only see as ending  _terribly_. Daisy was meant to have a family, and if SHEILD and Coulson and May weren’t enough for Skye, how will they ever be enough for Daisy?

And, of course, it’s hard,  **painful** , even to see a character accept so completely her birth name (which she  _rejected_  for more than a season) while _simultaneously_  going through an arc with heavy trans parallels (Coulson, her father figure, having a hard time adjusting). And that’s already in addition to the trans parallels with Cal not being able to accept Skye as Skye instead of Daisy. For the show to go through such an unexpected whip lash in this particular way, hurts. For it to be  _barely_  handled,  _barely_  mentioned, burns. This is a huge, huge chose for anyone to go through. It’s not treated with the attention or respect it deserves. We don’t know  _why_  Skye wants to go by Daisy now. We don’t really know how she feels when she’s called Skye. At best it feels careless and ill handled like this narrative was never,  _never_  in three seasons, even considered from a trans perspective.

And I think that’s why I hate the whole family arc, really. The parallels are there, the connection, the emotion, but they’re all backwards. Skye’s not struggling to find someone who’ll accept her, she’s struggling to find family. Not a found family either that’s so common in a queer narrative. She wants her  _biological_  family. And watching this story arc crash and burn as shown me just how much those two things  _are not_  the same. 

“But Skye’s _honoring_  her father.” I’ve seen some say.

I get it. I do.

But, look at it this way, Skye has been missing a last name ever since she threw off the fake one she was given when put into the foster system. So why not just give her a full name? _Skye Daisy Johnson_.

Skye is the girl who never got to grow up with her father. Daisy is the girl who did.

This name summarizes Skye’s identity, and not just in the way I mentioned at the start of this post. It takes Skye’s desire and longing for a family that is also imbedded, in part, in her chosen name and it combines it with Cal’s hopes and dreams for his daughter. It accepts his legacy, it honors him, without erasing the character from season one and all the struggles she went through.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to message or follow me on tumblr at dusty-soul.tumblr.com


End file.
